House Fire In Hartford Kills Disabled Man, 55

A city man died Wednesday evening after a fire in his single-family house on Thomaston Street in Hartford.

Seth Sharp, 55, became the city's fifth fire-related fatality this year, and the fourth in a week.

Sharp, who was confined to a wheelchair, was found unconscious by firefighters, who pulled him out of a rear bedroom window, said Lt. Thomas Jacobucci, a spokesman for the Hartford Fire Department.

Sharp, a retired architect, was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 6:05 p.m., said Pete Mobilia, spokesman for the hospital. Mobilia said Sharp apparently died of smoke inhalation.

The rear of the house was engulfed in smoke, and flames were shooting out of the windows when two firefighters pulled Sharp out of the house.

Firefighters were forced to climb out of a window seconds after they removed Sharp because the smoke turned into flames, Jacobucci said.

"It was a dangerous rescue attempt," he said.

Jacobucci said the single-alarm fire started in the kitchen, where food was left on the stove.

Ann McAlpine, 70, Sharp's mother-in-law, was home when the fire started. McAlpine ran to a neighbor's house to call the fire department, Jacobucci said.

McAlpine was taken to St. Francis hospital for smoke inhalation; she was listed in satisfactory condition Wednesday night.

The house was occupied by McAlpine and Sharp's wife, Frances Sharp, who is a teacher at Weaver High School, a neighbor said. Frances Sharp was not at home when the fire started.

The fire, which started about 5:30 p.m., took about 10 to 15 minutes to bring under control, said Deputy Fire Chief Aaron West.

This is the city's fifth fire-related fatality this year.

A 42-year-old Hartford man died of smoke inhalation and a heart

attack early Tuesday. Two Hartford men, trapped in a third-floor Albany Avenue apartment, died of smoke inhalation late Saturday. Last month, a 2-year-old child died in a fire on Capen Street.

"I don't remember this many deaths in this short period of time in my 25 years with the department," said Jacobucci. "There is nothing to point to in particular as to the reason for all these fires. This is shocking to everyone in the fire department.